By Noor Huda Ismail

 Next month marks the first anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel – a significant event that reverberated globally and triggered an uptick in youth radicalization, particularly online. The Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report 2024 reveals that this conflict directly contributed to the radicalization of two Singaporean youths – a 14-year-old and a 33-year-old. These incidents can be explained by a psychological phenomenon called “identity fusion”, where individuals feel an intense sense of oneness with a group to the point where their personal and social identities merge. This feeling of unity makes them willing to make extreme sacrifices for their group as their identity becomes inseparable from the group’s fate. While identity fusion is not limited to Islamist extremism – it manifests in football fans reacting violently after a crucial loss or animal rights activists responding to trophy hunting – it has found fertile ground among youths who feel connected to the Palestinian cause. It is essential to recognize that the Hamas-Israel war is a long-standing issue, with roots tracing back to the establishment of Israel in 1948. This deep historical context adds layers to the narrative, making it particularly compelling for youths who perceive a sense of injustice and shared suffering. Southeast Asian policymakers must proactively address this challenge to prevent further radicalization among young people. This involves understanding the mechanism of identity fusion in online radicalization and embracing technology as a tool for effective intervention. By doing so, policymakers can create strategies that resonate with young people and counter extremist narratives.

S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU Singapore, 2024. 4p

By Kelly Stewart, David DuBois

This brief scoping review provides an overview of current research findings relating to law enforcement mentoring of youth. While not a systematic review of all available research, the findings present the current landscape of the types of programs that have been studied, the goals of such programs, and the evidence of their effectiveness in achieving intended outcomes. The review begins with a brief history and theoretical justification for engaging law enforcement (e.g., police) as mentors. Next, an overview of the review scope and literature search strategy is provided, along with a summary of the findings of identified studies and consideration of their limitations. The final sections provide conclusions as well as recommendations for practice and research.

Boston: National Mentoring Resource Center, 2021. 14p.

By Manasi Deshpande & Michael G. Mueller-Smith

We estimate the effect of losing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits at age 18 on criminal justice and employment outcomes over the next two decades. To estimate this effect, we use a regression discontinuity design in the likelihood of being reviewed for SSI eligibility at age 18 created by the 1996 welfare reform law. We evaluate this natural experiment with Social Security Administration data linked to records from the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System. We find that SSI removal increases the number of criminal charges by a statistically significant 20% over the next two decades. The increase in charges is concentrated in offenses for which income generation is a primary motivation (60% increase), especially theft, burglary, fraud/forgery, and prostitution. The effect of SSI removal on criminal justice involvement persists more than two decades later, even as the effect of removal on contemporaneous SSI receipt diminishes. In response to SSI removal, youth are twice as likely to be charged with an illicit income-generating offense than they are to maintain steady employment at $15,000/year in the labor market. As a result of these charges, the annual likelihood of incarceration increases by a statistically significant 60% in the two decades following SSI removal. The costs to taxpayers of enforcement and incarceration from SSI removal are so high that they nearly eliminate the savings to taxpayers from reduced SSI benefits

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2022. 38p.

By Gretta L Goodwin,, et al.

Why GAO Did This Study AMBER Alerts quickly communicate information to the public in certain child abduction cases. DOJ oversees the AMBER Alert network, which is made up of law enforcement and other involved stakeholders. DOJ created the AMBER Alert program to help carry out its AMBER Alert responsibilities. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (2021 NDAA) required DOJ to take additional actions related to the AMBER Alert network. It also includes a provision for GAO to assess the extent to which DOJ implemented these requirements and identify any challenges or needs in the U.S. territories. This report addresses (1) U.S. territories’ processes for and challenges in responding to missing and exploited children’s cases, including issuing AMBER Alerts; (2) DOJ actions to integrate U.S. territories into the AMBER Alert network; and (3) DOJ efforts to address certain 2021 NDAA requirements related to the AMBER Alert network, including assisting Tribes and U.S. territories. Among other methods, GAO analyzed DOJ documents, such as its AMBER Alert Best Practices document. GAO interviewed DOJ and Fox Valley officials and relevant U.S. territory officials. GAO also interviewed officials from a nongeneralizable selection of six federally recognized Tribes.  

Washington, DC: United States Government Accountability Office, 2024. 45p.

By Paul Pazen and Steven L. Byers

People in Colorado have not directly experienced crime. From property offenses to violent crimes, every crime leaves a traumatized victim. Whether the wounds are physical, psychological, or financial, it is important to acknowledge the profound effects that a crime can have on its victims. At Common Sense Institute, our goal is to address the economic impact of crime while remaining conscious of the suffering that it causes. This report analyzes the cost of juvenile crime in Colorado and its economic impact. This study encompasses the period of 2010 to 2023 and the data comes from Colorado Crime Statistics (2023). Colorado’s juvenile crime trends tell a mixed story. On the one hand, youth crime rates have fallen in the last 15 years as property crime rates fall, follow. On the other hand, violent youth crime has risen. Meanwhile, the number of juveniles arrested and detained has fallen from a combination of alternative sentencing, diversion programs, and increased parole. It is violent crime that costs more. Juvenile crime results in direct or tangible costs including unrecovered stolen property, damaged property, victims’ out-of-pocket medical expenses, the cost of police, courts and correctional institutions, and lost earnings by both victims and juvenile perpetrators who are arrested and convicted. Juvenile crime also inflicts indirect or intangible costs like the pain and suffering of victims, reduced quality of life for everyone, and lower levels of investment and lower property values.i Intangible costs are difficult to measure with precision but, among those who have estimated them, there is a consensus that the intangible cost of juvenile crime far exceeds the tangible cost. Reducing current rates of murder, rape, assault, theft, and robbery by juveniles would produce a wide range of savings and other benefits to families, individuals, property owners and taxpayers. All estimates of the cost of crime in this report are adjusted for inflation and are reported in 2020 dollars so that costs can be compared across years. In 2021, after an extraordinary rise in crime, CSI estimated a total cost of crime of $3.3 billion. 

Greenwood Village, CO: Common Sense Institute, 2024. 30p.

By Eleanor Staples and Jo Staines

This research sought to provide evidence about care-experienced children’s involvement with YJSs from the perspectives of both professionals and children. It looks at how YJS professionals understand care-experienced children’s needs and challenges and what barriers exist to working with them. It also explores perceived success factors, roles and relationships with multi-agency partners, and the impact of policy instruments designed to reduce the numbers of care-experienced children entering the youth justice system.

Research & Analysis Bulletin 2024/03 Manchester, UK: HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2024. 52p.

By Elizabeth Cauffman

With support from NIJ and others, the University of California (UC), Irvine and the Superior Court of California, Orange County engaged in a collaborative effort to evaluate a Young Adult Court (YAC) that specifically handles justice-system-involved 18- to 25-year-old young men in Orange County, California. The study is a randomized controlled trial that follows young men in the YAC treatment group as well as similar young men who are processed in traditional court (“control”) for 30 months after their enrollment into the court (YAC treatment) or study (control). For this project, the research study team has interviewed the young men every 3 to 6 months for 30 months (baseline; 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, 12-month follow-up, 18-month follow up, 24-month follow-up, and 30-month follow-up). Questions in the research interviews cover various domains, including criminal and antisocial behavior, perceptions of the legal system, psychological development, psychosocial maturity, social context (e.g., peer groups, family support), and environmental factors (e.g., neighborhood disorder). We also collect data from two additional sources for YAC treatment participants actively engaged in the court (i.e., pre-graduation). First, we conduct 10-minute interviews with YAC participants before or after their court hearings to assess their perceptions and experiences of the court as it unfolds. Second, case managers and the YAC probation officer submit reviews of each participant’s progress in the program. The primary goal of the study is to understand whether the YAC improves life outcomes for the young men by reducing recidivism, reducing antisocial behavior,  improving health, improving developmental and psychological outcomes, and/or promoting positive socio-economic and educational outcomes. When data collection is complete, another goal is to examine whether the YAC reduces racial, ethnic, and socio-economic disparities across the life-course– particularly after YAC graduation. In addition to designing and launching the brand new Orange County YAC, this NIJ-sponsored project also aimed to describe the perceived successes and challenges associated with involvement in another, pre-existing YAC: The San Francisco Young Adult Court (which was established in 2015; https://sf.courts.ca.gov/divisions/collaborative-courts/young-adult-court). For this component of the project, our goal was to use data from the San Francisco YAC to inform and improve the Orange County YAC. 

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Program, 2024. 23p.

By Richard Mendel

Well designed alternative-to-incarceration programs, such as those highlighted in Effective Alternatives to Youth Incarceration: What Works With Youth Who Pose Serious Risks to Public Safety,1 are critically important for reducing overreliance on incarceration. But support for good programs is not the only or even the most important ingredient for minimizing youth incarceration. To reduce overreliance on youth incarceration, alternative-to-incarceration programs must be supported by youth justice systems that heed adolescent development research, make timely and evidence-informed decisions about how delinquency cases are handled, and institutionalize youth only as a last resort when they pose an immediate threat to public safety. In addition, systems must make concerted, determined efforts to re duce the long standing biases which have perpetuated the American youth justice system’s glaring racial and ethnic disparities in confinement. This report will highlight state and local laws, policies and practices that have maximized the effective use of alternative-to-incarceration programs and minimized the unnecessary incarceration of youth who can be safely supervised and supported at home.   

Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2023. 25p.

By Ciera Phung-Marion | 99 Wash. L. Rev. 277 (2024)March 1, 2024

Abstract: In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court released the historic decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not protect an individual’s right to an abortion. Dobbs overturned many cases, including J.D. v. Azar, which previously protected abortion rights for unaccompanied migrant youth in federal detention facilities. Post-Dobbs, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)—the agency responsible for caring for detained immigrant children—still protects abortion rights as part of its own internal policy. Without judicial precedent, however, this policy lacks the stability to truly protect the rights of the children in its care. This Comment discusses the impact of Dobbs on the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children (UCs) detained in immigration custody by ORR. Now that detained UCs’ right to abortion is only protected by agency policy, it can be changed by ORR without going through notice and comment rulemaking. This Comment explains the historical context of the rights of migrant children and the right to an abortion. It advances the argument that states that want to protect abortion for detained immigrant youth must incorporate those rights in child welfare laws.

99 Wash. L. Rev. 277 (2024)March 1, 2024

By Michael Welner, Matthew DeLisi, Heather M. Knous-Westfall, Carolyn C. Meltzer & James D. Seward 

In 2012, the United States Supreme Court struck down existing legislative statutes mandating life without parole sentencing of convicted homicide offenders under age 18. The Court’s core rationale credited research on brain development that concludes that juveniles are biologically less capable of complex decision-making and impulse control, driven by external influences, and more likely to change. Closer scrutiny of the research cited in the defendants’ amicus brief; however, reveals it to be inherently flawed because it did not include relevant populations, such as violent offenders; utilized hypothetical scenarios or games to approximate decision-making; ignored research on recidivism risk; made untenable leaps in their interpretation of relevance to the study of homicide, and failed to include contradictory evidence, even from the brief’s authors. In forensic assessment, a blanket assumption of immaturity based on a homicide offender’s age is not appropriate, as research has demonstrated that in relevant respects, older adolescents can be just as mature as adults. An individualized and thorough assessment of each juvenile offender, including an analysis of personal history, behavioral evidence such as pre-, during, and post-crime behavior and testing data more accurately informs questions of immaturity and prognosis in juvenile violent offenders.

American Journal of Criminal Justice (2023) 48:1157–1182

By The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Key findings

• In 2023, female students and LGBTQ+ students experienced more violence, signs of poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their male cisgender and heterosexual peers.

• From 2021 to 2023, there were early signs that adolescent mental health is getting better. There were also concerning increases in students' experiences of violence at school.

• From 2013 to 2023, 10-year trends were similar to what data showed in 2021. There were decreases in students' use of substances. There were increases in students' experiences of violence, signs of poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Students' sexual activity decreased, but so did their protective sexual behaviors, like condom use.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2024.